BRITISH BORNEO. 49 
feet long is lighted and placed on the floor alongside the 
European visitor, if he is a person of any rank, and it Is 
etiquette for him to carry the candle away with him at the 
conclusion of his visit, especially if at night. It was a severe 
test of the courteous decorum of the Malay nobles when on 
one occasion, a young officer, who accompanied me, not only 
spilt his cup of coffee over his bright new uniform, but, when 
impressively bidding adieu to H. H. the Sultan, stood for 
some time unconsciously astride over my lighted candle. Not 
a muscle of the faces of the nobles moved, but the Europeans 
were scarcely so successful in maintaining their gravity. 
Mr. DALRYMPLE’S description of Brunai, furnished to the 
Field in August, 1884, is as follows:—‘On a broad river, 
sweeping round in an imposing curve from the South-East- 
ward, with abrupt ranges of sandstone hills, for the most part 
cleared of forest, hemming it in on either side, and a glimpse 
of lofty blue mountains towering skywards far away to the 
North-East, is a long straggling collection of atap (thatch 
made of leaves of xzbong palm) and kajang (mats of ditto) 
houses, or rather huts, built on piles over the water, and 
forming a gigantic crescent on either bank of the broad, curv- 
ing stream. This is the city of Brunai, the capital of the 
Yang di Pertuan, the Sultan of Brunai, x¢a¢ one hundred or 
more, and now in his dotage: the abode of some 15,000 
Malays, whose language is as different from the Singapore 
Malay as Cornish is from Cockney English, and the coign of 
vantage from which a set of effete and corrupt Pangerans 
extended oppressive rule over the coasts of North-West 
Borneo, from Sampanmangiu Point to the Sarawak River in 
days gone by, ere British enterprise stepped in, swept the 
Sulu and Illanun pirates from the sea, and opened the rivers 
to commercial enterprise. 
Standing on the summit of one of the above-mentioned hills, 
a fine bird’s eye view is obtained of the city below. The 
ramshackle houses are all built in irregular blocks or clusters, 
but present on either side a regular frontage to the broad 
river, and following its sweeping curve, form two imposing 
crescent, divided by a fine water-way. Behind these main 
